On David's kind request, I'd like to post a short intro to myself and invite any other new or commonly lurking members of the forums to do the same.

My name is Josh, and I'm a relatively fresh tabla student. Got my first practice set and intro lessons about four years ago, and have been watching my obsession for tal and love for Indian Classical Music grow steadily since. As a lifelong musician (mostly guitar and mandolin—western classical and American/Canadian folk; have also dabbled in Latin and African percussion), I've found myself connecting with Indian classical in a way that other forms never seemed to allow.

I live in Vancouver, BC, have had a few teachers here in town, and also a few while living down in the Bay Area for work. If any fellow tabla students happen to be in the Vancouver area, do get in touch—I am trying to start a regular Group Riyaz sit drilling small phrases from the "dha-tiri kitataka takatiri kitataka dheredehere..." rela. (Thanks to Shawn Mativetsky for inspiring me to try to get this group going, his Tabla Workshop in Montreal last month was fantastic, and I highly recommend it to any students in North America). If any other instrumentalists see this, please don't be shy to reach out as well: always keen to grow my circle of ICM enthusiast friends.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a beautiful wife who is a classically trained vocalist. About a year ago, she began studying sitar, and we are really enjoying regular riyaz together. Hoping to have a common repertoire large enough to perform together within the next couple of years, but certainly have a long way to go until that day comes. Here's where we were at circa about 3 months ago, critique/comments most welcome:

Pleased to meet you all, and looking forward to interacting with you here on the forums. And, big thanks to David for maintaining this amazing corner of the internet: Chandrakantha.com is such an incredible and helpful resource.

I am Sunil Banerjee.I have just a normal interest in music.I do not understand it but would like to as I get by.Considering that Indian sub-continent has such a rich musical tradition I would like to gain from this popular and authoritative site.I spent the better part of my life in the Indian Air Force.Now I am retired.It is great to be here.Thanks David.

namaste,
i'm composer and musician.
big fan of India.
i was travel a lot for a different places of it magic country.
from Manali till Kaniyakumari, from Jodhpur till Kolkata.
so, Indian music and lifestyle come into my compositions.
all my travels is stopped now throught the war in my country.
but i have tabla and ravanahttha for playing while mssing india )))
wanna share here my new short trio.
i play all instruments by myself.

Hi guys, I'm Arjav Rawal. I'm 15 and from Dublin, CA in the Bay Area. I am currently a sophomore in high school. For me, music has been in the family since day one. I began his classical training at the age of 3 with my mother as my first guru, and later took training from Smt. Alka Bhatnagar and Shri Sandeep Ranade, a disciple of Pt. Jasraj and Pt. Sanjeev Abhyankar.

I have won numerous accolades throughout the Bay Area in talent competitions.

In 2011, I came in 2nd place at the 1st annual Discovering Shining Stars competition, hosted by the Global School of Silicon Vally. In 2012, I came in first at the Independence Day competition hosted by the Federation of Indo-Americans, and was awarded by the Indian Consul General for San Francisco, N. Parthasarathi. In 2013, I was featured and interviewed by WomenNow TV, the first South Asian talk show of its kind, aired on Star Plus. I also won the first prize in 2014 at the Republic Day competition hosted by our local Hindi radio station, Radio Zindagi 1550 AM. In 2015, I was in the Top 20 finalists for Zee TV's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs USA edition. I was invited to participate in the Top 12, but could not attend due to academic priorities. I then took a sabbatical from music to focus on his studies, and now am slowly getting back into music. Recently, my version of Mora Saiyyan by Shafqat Amanat Ali debuted on a local radio station, Bolly92.3FM, to widespread acclaim, and I was interviewed about my music on Radio Pani Poori, an online radio station from Chicago.

You can find more of my music at arjavrawal.bandcamp.com. I look forward to participating in some wonderful discussions about the world's greatest gift -- music.__________________Arjav Rawal

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